Finum Goldton Filters

I make at least five cups of tea daily. Some at home and some at work. Over the years I've learned to appreciate nice loose-leaf teas that brew best in a basket that gives them room to "breath." While I'd love to use a beautiful teapot, it's not always practical. The usual solution is these tiny mesh tea balls, but they don't allow the leaves to really expand. There are also tea tumblers with baskets, but I found most of their baskets tiny and hard to clean.
Luckily, I stumbled upon these Finum Goldton Filters. They are perfect for making a single cup of wonderfully brewed tea in whatever mug or cup is around. They have ample room and the tea infuses really well through the fine gold chamber. It's really easy to just spoon the tea in, no wrangling with stray leaves like with a tea ball.
Unlike traditional mesh, the gold walls are very easy to clean and I hardly ever have to pick stray leaves out. They also come with a cap that can allow a stronger brew as it keeps the temperature more constant. I recommend this simple Adobe Air app Tea-Timer to prevent over-steeping. After brewing the cap doubles as a stand for the filter, which keeps it from dripping all over the place. Another advantage of brewing a single cup at once is that I can serve guests any type of tea they want instead of sharing one single pot of tea. I originally got these for work, but I bought some for home and use mainly these instead of a tea pot.
--Melissa McEwen
Finum Goldton Filters
$15
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45 Responses to “Finum Goldton Filters”

Where’s a good website discussion of decaf tea? I like to cold-brew tea concentrate in advance with a Toddy System so I have iced tea extract on hand; I cant get through a day at work with just one Thermos(TM) bottle of iced tea, so I use the concentrate… but local storefront tea vendors are very spendy, and supermarkets only stock decaf tea bags.

really, you don’t need any sort of filter to brew tea! just pour water over the leaves.. after the first rinse all the particulate should be gone, and the big leaves left over will sink to the bottom for every subsequent infusion. see this method on display on the stoops & checkout counters of any chinatown in america.

That works great for full, flat tea leaves — some green teas come to mind — but many tea varieties are either chopped fine – small enough when dry to fall through a sieve – or are naturally smaller and not flat, and thus don’t stick well.

Having said that, I will definitely brave errant tea bits if there’s no filter available, rather than go without.

I have a similar filter which I use at least daily and don’t have any problem with actual tea getting stuck to it. It really is a fine mesh. The only exception is chamomile tea, some parts of the flower are so fine that they will stick, but it’s a very small trade-off.

Here’s an example of a tea that I have often that doesn’t get stuck at all (but did in a typical strainer type infuser).

My response was to someone who recommended not bothering with a filter at all, but instead just put the tea leaves at the bottom of the cup and pour the hot water over. Some tea leaves work OK with that, because they’re big enough and flat enough to stick to the bottom, but many/most are not.

I drink a ton of tea each day – about five cups caffeinated the first half of the day and three to four decaf or minimally caffeinated in the second half. I drink so much I have a little tea station with an electric tea kettle next to me. I’m paranoid about heating plastic though, so I skipped the plastic filters myself. My electric tea kettle has zero plastic inside after removing a couple of little plastic bits. Silicon I feel safer about with heat, but i haven’t looked into finding a filter that uses it. For loose leave teas I use the long Finum loose leaf tea bags. They work great.

Thanks to these comments, I now realize I could use this to brew loose-leaf tea. I’m not a big coffee fan (even very good coffee – according to other people – always tastes too bitter to me, I’m a bit of a supertaster) but I like tea. I don’t like tea bag tea, though, so I don’t drink it much unless someone else prepares it in a tea kettle. Not wanting to bother with a tea kettle myself, I mostly do without. But now I will try my french press.

I do like the idea of the Ingenuitea linked a couple comments up better than the Finum filter of the OP.

It’s very commonly available in outdoor stores (I think I actually got mine at Dick’s, even), so it might be easier to find in a local shop than the Finum. On the other hand, the Finum does look to be a couple of dollars cheaper.

I’ve used a stainless steel teaball for years. It’s spring loaded so you can just dunk it in the tea and release the handles. Works great. The only problem is that it looks kind of icky from years of tannin buildup – which I’ll bet this one soon would too.

When I’m out and about and don’t have a filter, I like using 2 paper (hot) cups and one lid to brew my loose tea.

1- One cup has loose tea, the other has hot water.
2- Pour hot water into cup with loose tea, leaving one cup empty.
3- While the tea brews, use a razor/knife to cut parallel slits along the top raised edge, opposite from the drinking mouth. I like to make the slits at an angle, maybe 5 or so. The more slits, the faster the drip.
4- Fasten lid to the cup with water+tea, then pour the tea through the slits into the empty cup. Rest the brewing cup (angled maybe 100 degrees) slit side down, over the mouth of the empty cup. It should rest in place while it drains freely.

Done right, there should be little to no leaves passing through the slits. Upright the brew cup and knock the leaves down; remove lid. Brew again or empty and repeat.

On a typical day I probably drink at least a quart of tea (I use a great pint sized – as in actual pint, not pint sized = small – glass mug and I have several during the day) I’ve used a filter very similar to this for at least the last 15 years and LOVE it. Mine also has not only a cap but a plastic container that surrounds it which makes it perfect for travel so I no longer have to put up with the hideous “tea” served by hotels. I got mine at uptontea.com , I’ve gotten my loose leaf teas there for years. Check them out, you won’t be disappointed.

I swear…Americans are so challenged, when it comes to tea, the simplest beverage in the world to prepare. Either they make it by the cup, in the microwave, with the bag hanging out, or they buy some god-awful, overpriced gadget to over-complicate the process, as if it was actually difficult, in some way.

Go into a Bed, Bath & Beyond…they don’t even sell tea-pots! But you can buy an Iced Tea machine, for $60, or a special, digitally controlled kettle, that will ensure your water temp is precisely correct, lest you “burn” the precious leaves, by actually
(gasp) boiling your water, when every serious tea-aficionado knows you mustn’t do THAT! And a dedicated App, to time your steep? Please…

I mean, really…a simple wire collander ($1.49),and a ten dollar pot will do exactly the same job, as an overpriced, over-engineered, gold-plated doo-hickey, at a fraction of the cost. And a nice thermos, will keep your tea hot all day, so you don’t have to repeat the process, three or four times.

Another vote for the plain Bodum coffee press, I used to drink tons of ti kuan yin. But I’m a guy that never ever takes his teabag out, I like strong astringent tea (and coffee). Now I’m somewhat addicted to Aeropress coffee, it’s so damn quick.

Has anyone here used the Ingenuitea? Put in the leaves, pour water over, then set the pot on a mug or cup. There’s a little valve that drains the tea off into the cup leaving the leaves for a second cup, if you want. You can see the color developing as the tea brews. I have a gold filter too, but the Ingenuitea is my fave. I got mine from a tea company – but ThinkGeek sells them too – how cool is that?http://www.thinkgeek.com/homeoffice/kitchen/96bb/

It’s not bad, but has two faults. First, the spout dribbles when pouring. This can be avoided with care, but damnit, you shouldn’t HAVE to work at it. The second is that pressing the plunger down to seal off the leaves (and thus keep your tea from oversteeping) can squeeze the leaves, thus pushing out more tannins, leaving you with a slightly more astringent cup than you might get otherwise. Again, care can take care of this, but you just shouldn’t have to.

As for the Finum filter, I have, perhaps not this one, but one with a similar design. I have to say I prefer the Republic of Tea plastic mesh basket or their metal basket. Especially for teas that will do multiple steepings like keemuns, pu-erhs, and oolongs.

The problem with baskets like the Finum is if you remove the leaves from your mug, the solid bottom holds some of the water, and your leaves continue to steep, even though they’re no longer in the tea. Add it to a second cup and reinfuse and you have a bitter mess.

If you like vast quantities (ancient SNL joke!) of good tea, get these filter baskets, a good auto-shut-off hot water boiler and use a big, tempered glass coffee pot made for an auto drip coffee machine. These carafes hold a big quantity and surplus ones are always in good supply at thrift stores and yard sales.

i use min all the time! it’s great if you are multiple steeping oolongs or a gyokuru. however, i travel with a republic of tea poly-mesh brew basket because it’s a snap to clean and i’m not out a lot of cash if i accidentally leave it behind.

I also like using a French press for tea but that’s usually for when guests are over. If I’m making loose leaf for myself, I just get a decent coffee filter, shove it in a tall commuter-style cup and leave about 1 cm of the filter sticking out of the top. I fold down the edges a bit then dump in a cup’s worth of tea, pour hot water from a kettle through it and push the cup’s lid down. 3-4 min later I pop the cup’s lid off, take the filter + tea out and chuck it in the bin.

Or just use some decent tea bags. Yorkshire Gold, Taylor’s of Harrogate or, in a pinch, Twinnings.

I have a nearly identical basket; it’s black plastic instead of blue. I hadn’t thought it was gold, it doesn’t look like gold, although it’s the same color as the picture.

It is quite easy to use, although it will still get stuck leaves very infrequently. I find that by knocking out the majority and then leaving it to dry completely, I can get it clean very easily (I like to stick it next to the exhaust on my laptop, it dries in half an hour).

I never tire of being a prissy, minutia-obsessed, self-fascinated foodie; in that vein, I add a soupcon of Eider Duck saliva to my bespoke Inuit tea bladder. It’s really the only way to brew a calculating Huoshan Huangya or a verecund Bai Hao Yinzhen. Lipton’s okay, too.

I have the medium size of this filter and I love it. The stainless steel mesh doesn’t clog, is easy to clean, and lets through only the *smallest* particles, if any. The best thing is that by allowing the leaves to unfurl and expand, it results in a much better (and quicker) brew. I got mine at Sur la Table, thanks to a gift card from Xmas, for about $9.

eh, stop being such sissies! strain it thru yer teeth n’ spit the leaves at passersby.

seriously, though; just get yourselves a cheapy Bodum leaf tea strainer. it costs about $4, works great in a pot or cup, and you just knock it against the rim of your compost bucket or garbage can to get rid of the used leaves, wet or dry. i’ve used it for years with everything from dandelion tea to our current fave – genmaicha – and it works like the charm.

A vote for the “perma brew” cup size infuser from Upton Tea Imports. It’s a small (1 3/4″ x 1″) cylindrical basket with a 4″ or so long handle. The basket opens with a non-spring hinge that allows you to lay the open basket on the counter. You spoon in the tea, snap it shut, place in a tea cup, and voila. Much easier than the spring-loaded metal tea balls. They’re about $3 apiece.

If only the tea companies individually wrapped a single serving of tea in some sort of filter medium, kinda like a paper filter I guess.

Imagine the hours of lost productivity saved! Imagine just plunking a “bag” of tea in a cup of hot water, and not having any contraptions getting between you and your tea. Oh what a perfect world that would be!

unfortunately, the tea in most tea bags is what they’ve swept up off the floor after the real tea – the loose leaf, that is – gets packaged. as a friend of mine who once worked for Lipton put it: “bagged tea is the beverage equivalent of sausages – there is some real stuff in there, but lots of stuff you don’t wanna know about, too!”

At one tea plantation in Sri Lanka, the workers showed me the mesh boxes they used to sort the tea. The dried leaves that got caught in the first, biggest mesh were the premium product, and it went down from there through about 5 levels of quality until you got to what was barely more than dust…the stuff that would be put in commercial tea bags.

I really like this one. When I was in search of a good tea infuser, this is the first one I bought. I’ve since received different types as gifts and I’ve come back to this one. So much easier to clean and it has lots of room in the basket for the tea to get around. It’s great!